CSC selects SGI ICE Cube Air to increase HPC capacity

13.06.2012

Pre-fabricated air-cooled modular data center to transform former industrial site.

CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd. (CSC) has selected SGI ICE Cube modular data center technology for a new green data center in Kajaani, Northern Finland. Valued at €2.6 million, the three year deal will see a brownfield site transformed to meet CSC's expanding demand for HPC capacity.

“The SGI modular data center will serve as the foundation of CSC future growth in HPC and ICT services and is the culmination of several years of planning. The level of flexibility provided by the SGI solution really helps us adapt to changing demand,” says Tero Tuononen Director of ICT Platforms for CSC.

CSC was looking for a cost-effective, future proof and scalable data center. CSC selected SGI ICE Cube Air based on a detailed analysis of functionality and total costs over a ten-year period.  As part of the criteria, CSC is aiming for an annual power usage effectiveness (PUE) of less than 1.2 for its full data center infrastructure. The SGI ICE Cube Air can deliver a pPUE (partial PUE) of 1.08 or less. This efficiency is achieved using direct air free cooling taking advantage of the cool Northern climate. In fact, SGI has developed an extreme weather version of the ICE Cube Air for the Kajaani climate where the winter temperature can be as low as -45C, which can present problems for conventional free air-cooling systems.

The new data center’s sustainability is further enhanced by its reuse of a disused paper warehouse in the Renforsin Ranta business park, a former paper mill location ideally suited to modular data center technology.
Installation and commissioning is scheduled for completion in autumn 2012. Future HPC systems will be placed in Kajaani and the site will also provide low cost hosting for CSCs growing cloud and managed services portfolio.

“We are delighted to be supporting CSC's Kajaani project, their innovative approach is exploiting the best of technology and local resources to rapidly deliver a first class HPC facility in a more sustainable way.” said Rod Evans, VP for EMEA at SGI.

About SGI ICE Cube

Designed to reduce data center costs, deployment times and maintenance, ICE Cube brings the latest data center technology to any location with an installation time of around two weeks achieved as a result of being built and tested in the factory. By reducing data center costs, deployment times and maintenance, ICE Cube is ideal to supplement or replace traditional data center facilities. See more

About SGI

SGI, the trusted leader in technical computing, is focused on helping customers solve their most demanding business and technology challenges. Visit sgi.com for more information.
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About CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd.

CSC — IT Center for Science Ltd is administered by Finland's Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. CSC is a non-profit company providing IT support and resources for academia, research institutes and companies: modeling, computing and information services.
CSC provides Finland's widest selection of scientific software and databases and Finland's most powerful supercomputing environment that researchers can use via the Funet network.

Press Contact Information:

CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd.
Dan Still, Project Manager
+358 50 457 2925

Ogilvy Public Relations
Elvis Moyo
+44 (0)20 7309 1212
SGImedia@sogilvy.com